Good read, thanks! Yes, we need to continue to do our protest legally and to be above reproach. The people on the sideline will notice. Please continue to give your time, talent and treasure to the cause of small government.

Well done, indeed. However, I am personally glad that we are having this discussion today, I believe that Wisconsin could be the perfect place to have the first showdown and I applaud Scott Walker, the new Governor of Wisconsin for starting his term with audacity and courage.

Excellent! And 100% correct. I’d like to state for the record that Wisconsin’s democrat lawmakers are a bunch of cowards. If they believe so strongly in their case, they should stick around and do their job. They should argue on the floor of the Wisconsin legislature, and if they can’t turn the debate their way, OH WELL. Too bad, so sad! The people of Wisconsin are sick of the big labor power games, and they deserve a state legislature that will stand up for them! Can Gov. Walker request the assistance of surrounding state law enforcement officials to round up the errant democrat legicritters and send them home, tails tucked firmly between their legs? Because that would be WONDERFUL. I would PAY to watch them being handed over to the Wisconsin State Police at the state line. Beautiful.

Actually, speaking of paying, that would be a GREAT way to put some much needed coin in Wisconsin’s state coffers. Charge admission to watch the democrat state legicritters be shuffled back into their offices! Gov. Walker, I’m being completely serious — you could make a mint! And the dems would have no reason to complain. They’re all about wanting the government to have a lot of money, right? So they shouldn’t complain one bit about being put on display like a troupe of circus ponies.

Kos is a disgusting pig. Furthermore, if he ever called me that to my face, I’d hit him so hard his grandchildren would be born dizzy. Those are fighting words and that piece of garbage would get a fight.

Wait a minute Dude! Kos calls Tea Party people, “teabaggers”. Maybe you should look up the definition or explanation of the term and understand how it is being applied to people who have finally stood up to liberals and the Obama socialist agenda.

“Yeah, if you’re a knuckle-dragging homophobe.
Nobody talks about shit like “pillow biting” more than frightened GOP-ers who claim to be straight.”

So, if Kos is calling Tea Party members “teabaggers”, wouldn’t it be the same as calling him a “pillow biter” or “fudge packer”? Or, is it acceptable for Kos to insult the hell out of anyone he chooses but no one can say anything similar about him?

No. But I am an adult. Of course it’s obvious you nor Kos knowa nathing about that. For one the tea party is NOT through and won’t be until you people do grow up. Oh, did I mention, I’m not one? Just tired of liberal crap.

Can you imagine what it must feel like to be a port-sider these days? A mere two years after they swept into power on a wave of hope and change, their agenda lays in ruins, the electorate overwhelmingly hostile to their ideas and now they’ve gone and run out of other people’s money to fund their schemes.

If I hear one more teacher or teacher’s union rep mention how much they care about the kids, I’m going to throw up…

BTW, there’s one little perk of police officers, firefighters, and teachers that gets completely overlooked: the housing subsidy. They get to buy houses which are more than they would normally be able to afford. Guess who gets to pick up the tab for that?

I think you may have misinterpreted his tweet. It was addressed to “Tea Baggers.” He asserted that it was “our” turn now — by which I suppose he was referring to himself as well as to denizens of his website.

The plain sense of his words is that he and his are coming out of the closet and claim tea-bagging as their own. I always suspected them, but now we know.

What about all of the poor kids who rely on their subsidized school lunches? Are not these heartless blue-flu strikers starving the very children they claim to serve, those who rely on their school lunch for daily nutrition needs?

GET REAL. Taxpayers should NOT be paying to feed someone’s kid whose parents have gone out and spent the money on fags and booze or anything else. We get these hard done by types on TV but they always have a stubby and a smoke in their hand whilst they are complaining of being poor.

Obama DNC top-down involvement in a state matter is the epitome of so-called “astroturf”.
Sniper targets on the heads of their opponents, and Hitler equivalencies are the epitome of “un-civil” discourse.

Excellent post vodkapundit. Another point we should emphasise is that any “Tea Party Violence” so far has been perpetrated AGAINST the Tea partiers, or threatened against conservative officials, by leftist union thugs like those that assaulted Kenneth Gladney, or the demonstrators that threatened to hang Clarence Thomas. We have to ensure it stays that way, so any Tea Party demonstrators should be carefully briefed on MLK style non-violent protest principles, to ensure any violence, or violent rheteroc, remains on their side, not ours.

“Quite the education”. It certainly is. What the country is seeing, over and over again — with increasing intensity — is mild-mannered Republicans, faced with thuggish Democrats behaving every bit as badly as they accuse Republicans of doing.

It’s going to be an interesting couple of years. Don’t forget to vote in 2012.

The key point of this post is that Kos is right: the nation now gets to see what the Left is about. It doesn’t occur to them that most voters will be appalled by what they see. It doesn’t occur to them that calling people Tea Baggers, Nazis, racists, stupid and all the rest is not going to win the hearts and minds of those people. It hasn’t occurred to them since 2009 when the “Tea Party” movement began, it hasn’t occurred to them as their contemptuous rhetoric has fed the resentment and resolve of the Tea Parry and others, and it won’t occur to them now. So be it.

The majority of Wisconsin voters lected a Republican governor and legislature to deal with the overtaxed state budget. Since Wisconsin was run by Democrats for years, presumably many of those voters switched their votes last year. Do these people imagine those voters are going to be won over by this sort of rhetoric and behavior? Or by outsiders like the DNC and Obama’s political machine coming in to thwart the will of in-strate voters?

Kos and Stephen are right: we now get to see the Left in all its glory. 60s protest culture come to full flower. We are entitled to your money, and if you don’t like it, we will stop at nothing to make sure you have no say in the matter. The mask os off, and we shall see how the majority of American voters react. I don’t think it will go well for the Left. So here’s hoping they continue to show their cards.

Victor: Today, I saw a small band of giddy pro-union protesters waving signs at a very busy intersection in a liberal suburb of Milwaukee – and not one driver in a 15 minute period honked or waved in solidarity. (I paid attention.) And this was in one of the most left-leaning, latte-sipping, Volvo-driving areas of the state outside of Madison.

Think about it,though: this was during rush hour. Most of the people driving past had worked a full week -unlike the protesters. Some of them undoubtably had to scrabble to find child care because of school closings. And the dopey leftists thought it would be a good idea to wave signs saying “Support Worker Rights” during a Friday rush hour. How many of those people, even the Obama-voting squishes, glanced at those signs and thought “Workers? Do only teachers matter? What am I, chopped liver?”

These lefties really have no sense of how people in the real world perceive them. The rest of us look at them and see pampered, self-absorbed brats – they look in the mirrors and see heroes.

I was listening to Rush sometime this week and I like and agree with the statement he made about the word “workers”. I hate the word “workers”. Workers are ants. People are Employees, Entrepreneurs, etc. not “workers”. Slaves are workers.

What always gets me when I read posts like this is how they don’t learn. We show pix of the filth they leave and compare it with the tea party cleanliness, and instead of doing better the next time-i.e., to show us up–they just trash the joint again. Very strange.

Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy;
In any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

Brandon,
The dictionary describes conservative as “holding to traditional attitudes and values…”, which you can’t do if you ignore history, ergo, we learn from the experience of history. On the other hand the dictionary describes liberal as “open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.” In other words, “We’re looking to the future. We don’t need no stinkin’ history to hold us back.” Steve is right on target with his comment.

It rhymes a bit with teabagger, which will serve to confuse and disorent. It’s incredibly descriptive and I don’t think we could come up with one that is more apt. Works on multiple levels. And it’s got, how do I say this, when the phrase is spoken, it has punch. I think it’s the sharp “ck” sound.

Yeah, I’m going with teet sucker. It just rolls off the tongue, um, so to speak…

Just heard some interviews with Madison demonstrators. One was yelling “hurray! This is great! Just like the ’60′s” I think that just about says it all. A visit to Madison is a real eye opener. Fried 65 year old brains on every street corner.

Fire each and every teacher and administrator that called in sick and went to the demonstration.
Lying is grounds for dismissal.
How about endangerment of children…
For the Jackolopes (demcritters that bolt from their jobs) freeze their pay, kick them out of the offices they occupy, fire their staffs. desertion in the line of duty….

Agreed. They should be fired just like Reagan did to the air traffic controllers. I’m sure there are a lot of over-qualified people who have been out of a job for a few years that would happy to take teaching positions for far fewer benefits than these bozos command. Kids would be better off too.

I’m nowhere near Madison, but I’d like to suggest to those Tea Partiers and other decent Americans in the area to pick up those signs left as trash and dump it at the offices of the Teachers’ Union and SEIU…barring that, just gorilla glue them to the facades of their offices. Bwahahaha!

The Daily Kos is a childish echo chamber that makes one long for the days of a “Dear Diary” that no one saw since the only thing they are experts at is using a keyboard and thinking anyone cares what agenda driven people think who never go outside and actually do something.

My wife and I are among those Madison working parents you mentioned who are affected by the teacher’s illegal sickout. We’ve had to juggle our work schedules for the last three days. She’s taking vacation time to watch kids, and since I’m a commission based business owner, my time off is an opportunity cost of lost revenues. From on the ground here in Madison, I can tell you the teacher’s union is not winning the hearts and minds of the parents in the public relations battle. On Wednesday, parents were annoyed. Yesterday, parents were pissed. Today, parents are nuclear. Lord help them if it continues to next week.

So….what you are saying is that you expect the schools that are taxpayer funded (e.g. “the rest of us” )to care for your children because you don’t have enough self-responsibility to have something in place for that? Cry me a river. They don’t get paid to babysit your kids in WI anymore than they get paid to be police officer in NE. (our Uncarmeral is fielding a bill to arm teachers because all the Armchair Rambos think everything can be solved by a gun)Attitudes like this are why they are striking in the first place. You and yours wave around the flag of “We pay your salaries” like that is some kind of permission to treat them as 2nd class employees, should they dare to question your motives.

Second class citizens. Who cannot be fired, who do not contribute to their generous benefit packages, and who are paid far above the prevailing private sector standards.

Makes me wonder what would a first class citizen look like? Louis XIV?

Don’t need to explain who the third class citizens are – that would be the rest of us. Thanks for playing, and for putting your public school education to such good use. Come back when you’re less stupid.

As for second-class employees…I don’t even know where to start. First of all, nobody is upset with all teachers. Some public-school teachers are the salt of the Earth. Second, even the ones we’re mad at, it isn’t for “questioning our motives,” whatever you mean by that. We’re upset with them for (a) consistently defending a failed and sclerotic status-quo, (b) staging an illegal and dishonest strike, and (c) carrying out the strike without any evident qualms about the example they set for students, or the difficulties they inflict on parents.

I’m a private-school teacher. If I called in sick so I could attend a political protest, I’d risk my job. I’d certainly be asked to explain myself. Singing “We Shall Overcome” and playing victim wouldn’t cut it as an explanation, either. Maybe that’s why my students hear a lot more about calculus, and a lot less about political calculus, than public school students do.

The first question to ask of Kos is why are they using a disgusting sexual description on the Daily Kos to refer to Americans who are in the Tea Party group? Or perhaps the question is why no answer comes from them on this question?

I understand the answer is obvious. That’s not the point. Exposing them is.

Our little president is getting involved too, back to community organizing in flyover country. Sure hope those protestors get their way, if the viagra is no longer available, those Wisconsin winter nights are going to be a lot lonelier. And the dems on the lam and their promise to stay away for weeks? Hold special elections. Where I work if you don’t show up or call for three days, you can be fired. Seems reasonable enough to me, esp. with so many people who want to work. What is it with all these Dems who want to relive the 60s?

I taught in LA for 5 years. The Union destroyed children and education there and elsehwere. These are the most selfish, greedy, mean people on earth–after radical Muslims. They’ve also destoryed our economy. They care ONLY about themselves. And like children, when they dont get what they want (from govt), they riot. Horrible. Just like their Euro bretheren and their PA cole miner ancestors who nearly killed a million people during the winter of 1902 during a strike.

Union leftoids are getting a butt-reaming, and it’s out in public for us all to enjoy. Does he mean it’s Big Union’s turn to get a butt-reaming, after the reaming they’ve been giving the rest of us for the past few decades?

His fascination with the concept of teabagging implies that maybe that’s it. Teabagging, butt-reaming, same thing but facing a different direction.

But somehow it all seems a bit too convoluted for a simple-minded twit like Markos.

The media filters make our job harder. CBS News et al won’t show pics of the chaos and ruin left behind by the union protesters. And they’re happy to make up racist charges against the Tea Party. So we have to constantly act better than those we disagree with and hope, over time, people who aren’t as plugged in politically will notice.

“We have to ensure it stays that way, so any Tea Party demonstrators should be carefully briefed on MLK style non-violent protest principles, to ensure any violence, or violent rheteroc, remains on their side, not ours.”

You’re wrong about that. The only way that the original Tea Party guys got what they wanted was by using violence and eventually armed revolution…and, it’s going to be the same thing this time around.

Time after time after time he and his leftwing crazies proclaim they are the peoples choice, that they speak for the common man or woman. And time after time, they get utterly rejected when they actually try out their leftwing agenda. The public horror struck by what they attempt in our name.

they just can’t process rejection.

They label the truth lies, say the public is misinformed/confused/simple minded/or just plain stupid in response.

They always insult everyone but their most disturbed base members. Then make excuses that it’s someone else’s lies that make them hated. Couldn’t be their own conduct, when they’re so superior to mere mortals… nahh has to be their opponents telling fibs about them.

Kos stands strong and proud for idiocy. Those petulant, pansy-@ssed protesters look like nothing more than a bunch of spoiled, slacker slobs as per the usual littering Leftist faux tree huggers de jour.

Exactamundo, ErikZ! Plus, the tea partiers were talking about being taxed enough already (i.e. wanting to keep more of their own damned moula), whereas these idjits are protesting about not getting to keep enough of other people’s money they get paid with.

I live in Madison and will be attending a rally tomorrow to support Walker and the bill. I guarantee that we will behave opposite to how the union protesters have been behaving. It is pretty pathetic to see how poorly behaved the union protesters are, especially when we remember that taxpayers are the ones paying their salaries.

Actually, as a conservative, I’m not all that enthralled with democracy. Research reveals that our founding fathers weren’t fans either. To them, democracy was little better than mob rule, a majority of 51% riding roughshod over a minority of 49%. Seems most conservatives aren’t all that familiar with what it is we are conserving. Our type of government was called “the great experiment” for good reason. It hadn’t been done before. We are NOT a democracy. Majority rule is NOT the only deciding factor. We are a constitutional republic. We have laws that are supposed to apply to everyone, rulers included, and specifically limit what powers FEDERAL government can hold. That’s the whole reason for the resurgence in calls for constitutionality.

I’m sure many who write here and elsewhere are already familiar with all this. For goodness sakes, it’s why we have Democrats and Republicans, yet most conservatives still go around calling our government a democracy. Yes, we have democratic overtones in our voting policies and in the House and Senate, and those are good and welcome, but that doesn’t make us any less of a constitutional republic. If we speak as if we are enthralled with democracy, then we are just advancing the cause of Democrats, majority rules with no constitutional restraints. If we want to rebuild adherence to the Constitution, our speech should change to indicate we know what it is we are trying to conserve, our constitutional republic.

It’s no wonder people in the unions think like they do. Just look at the average credit card debt? Just look at how many folks have had their homes repossessed? We don’t even know how many vehicles have been repo’ed. The average liberal American believes it’s his right to live beyond his means, run up a huge debt, and expect someone else to pick up the tab. The real American taxpayers are tired as hell for paying for the excessive lifestyles these union folks live. I know, I live right next door to a union teacher. Bigger house, better cars, pool in the back yard, twice the floor space. And I’m paying for it all. They have more than I’ll ever afford. This is bull!! It has nothing to do with kids and education. It has to do with selfish power and excessive pay, way beyond the average private pay scales. Time to pull those reigns in folks. The NEA has to go!

Nicely done sir. I think everyone on the right and in the middle needs to get used to the idea that we are going to get off our seats and get involved. Entrenched interests don’t just roll over because their activity is in the spotlight.

When good men and women stand up to hypocrisy, or stand up for sound, mature fiscal policy, other good men and women need to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

Hey, I’d never even heard of “teabagging” until the decadent Left began to trumpet their own proclivities to mock their political enemies. I could have happily gone my whole life without hearing about it.

I don’t see any need for Tea Partiers to even think that he is referring to them. My theory is that his posting it on Twitter was an accident… he actually intended to shop it around on Craigslist.

Democrats of every stripe have been getting away with this kind of stuff for so long they can’t imagine a reality where their “concerns” are not taken with the utmost seriousness. Let them rave on. Too many dems have moved into lunatic fringe territory and, believe me, an awful lot of people have noticed. Their reign of error will come to an end soon enough.

I do hope the sweet children are learning the lesson that their parents are teaching: Power trumps ethics and principles of governance. I so hope that the sweet children take this lesson back to their schools, neighborhoods, and homes. Lunch break at school too short? Organize a protest and raise hell. Leash law in the neighborhood a problem? Same solution. Mom and Dad don’t permit smoking? Invite some kids over and raise hell.

Example teachers from all income taxes, payroll taxes, etc. But then reduce their pay to exactly what their take-home pay was before the exemption. End result? Everything they take home is taxpayer funded — just as it was before ewe exempted them.

Public employees effectively pay zero taxes. Always has been, always will be, by the nature of their employment.

Thanks you Anna, I was waiting for someone to slip up and make that statement.

It provides a perfect opportunity to illustrate why everyone who isn’t on the Guv’mint dole is so incredibly, galactically pissed at these drooling leftist sacks of utter shite.

You see, them paying taxes is completely analogous to me contributing to my retirement fund.
A. They get paid, by the state.
B. But the state takes some of that pay, in the form of taxes, in order to…
C. YOU GUESSED IT – put into their retirement fund!!!

It’s a giant circle jerk, with the private sector tax payers collectively (oops, sorry, won’t happen again ;~) ) playing the pivot man. All of this doesn’t even take into account the fact that they end up getting paid the next payday with some of the money they gave up in taxes the previous payday.

What about us private sector mouth-breathers you ask? Well, we only get to worry about funding our golden years with what we’ve got left over after funding theirs.

I would like to urge anyone who can, retiries, unemployed etc., to volunteer to babysit for people who’s kids are out of school because of these idiots. I wish I could help but it’s a long way from “The People’s Republik of Kalifornia” to Wisconsin. I hope it’s over before I could get there. Hang in there everyone, Especially Gov. Walker.

What’s not getting published is the pay these parasites are now getting; More than $30.00 an hour!
That’s outrageous!
And all they’re teaching is how to throw a tantrum when you don’t get your way.
AND THEY WANT MORE PAY FOR THAT?

Boy! I bet the children of these lawmaikers are so proud of their mom’s and dad’s for playing hookey and telling lies so as not to have to own up to their responsibilities as lawmakers. It must be invigorating to be able to tell your children that it is okay to break the laws that you set out for others as you are exempt by telling the citizenship to “DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO” Don’t fool yourselve, America is NOT proud of you and in fact believe you should all be charged with malfeasence of office and made to pay the penalty that the law lays down for you in cases such as these.

Can’t be said too often that Wisconsin’s teachers are America’s Greeks — and are revolting, too.

But Kos and the crew, slow learners, if at all, are beginning to see the beginning of the end of their gang’s decades-long Euro-Peon-ized raping, pillaging, looting and laundering of America’s wealth and its conversion to their un-earned and un-deserved lifestyles — and to the creeping subordination of America’s Exceptionalism to their beloved Socialist International’s equal wrongs for all!

Kos ought not to speak so surely about “our turn”. It’s as if there is no backlash or response to this leftist/slug outrage. Their so called turn has been violent, nasty, threatening, and with Dem legislators skipping the state, anarchic. Careful Kos, payback’s a bitch.
One things for sure, the leftist scum make the Tea Party look even better, where are the comparisons in our media?

Mr. Green,
I must agree that you had a wonderful contrast article. Just remember as far as no incitement of violence at “Tea Bagger” events, there was the one man who got part of his ear bit off. Of course, it goes without saying, it wasn’t the “Astroturf” that did that. no, it was a left wing “Nut Job” !

I have some reservations. It’s fine that citizens, the Tea Party, who care about their country are decent, CIVIL, law-abiding and fight their corner through these “elite” means. In contrast to the bullying and threatening / UNCIVIL behaviours of the “others”.

Unfortunately, displayed now quite openly the “leader/messiah” of the opponents called “Democrats/liberals” who “won”, clearly intends to use that win with open display of HATRED for everything that America is and stands for. Openly now manipulates America, her moral and legal force in the world as the most juicy prey to bring down and tear apart. A DARE, challenge/slap in the face to Americans who respect and cherish their identity as American. AND who fight their corner with decent lawful methods. The DARE escalating virtuallyl daily.

These “others” treating themselves as invincible because they have been given time and time again within this past half century, WITHOUT MONITORS, the levers of the machinery of civic and legal power. Citizens who ARE citizens gulled by “democrats/liberals” with their parasitical troops, to believe their intention to do well by America and good to her people. BUT who now FINALLY see them as the predators they are. AND the power they gave to these predators to be used against them. For their aim FROM the beginning :the ultimate destruction of the national ethos of individual freedom with implicit responsibillity for that freedom, equality in law, a free economy and the individual pursuit of happiness.

Despite clear evidence the liberals have been undermining America until this CEO, Obama was chosen for the coup de grace.

His cohorts in Media, Academia AND State and Federal Congress, and numbers in the Judiciary are institutionalising their destruction in Law. The very thing THEY despise except as instrument for their destructive aims. To await their triumph when law respecting Americans are picking through the rubble of their nation these “compassionate, feel your pain liberals” have engineered.

Two questions: 1. when confronted with one or several bulls in a china shop what should shopkeepers do ? And 2. do the owners of the nation, the adult, responsible citizens, believe diplomacy, civil behaviour and restraint have positive effect on thugs, criminals,psychopaths and gangsters who understand civility and moral force as a game for suckers, AND use it as such ?

Aww, give the little trotsky’s a break! They’re just LEARNING! Remember the labor protests of the thirties? Now DEM was sum good crackin’ times! They’re taking lessons from their buddies over in Paris, Italy, and Greece. Windows broken, fires set, cars overturned, and OH,THE BLOOD,–EVERYWHERE! Us stupid little “tea beggers” don’ kno how ta crack nothin’ but the calcification that has grown over our Constitution lo’ all these prosperous years. Our Constitution says we get to do what we want so long as it doesn’t harm someone else’s freedom. They have a problem with that.We clean UP our signs, but they know there’s a union paid army to clean up after them, so it’s OK to protest like a wild pig, and then walk away from any sence of responsibility. All because the Government owes them everything they desire, and they have no debt to their fellow citizen, and certainly no respect for the rule of law!

This is the beginning of Obama and the Democratic parties Propaganda attack against the Republican Party for the 2012 election.They are using M.S.N.B.C,Daily Kos,Media matters,Nation mag.New York Times,Washington post,Time,Huffington Post and many others for an attack campaign.The Democratic party is so hateful and disgraceful they will do anything and everything to win an the 2012 election.

It’s time to end the temper tantrum promoted by Obama and his minions. It’s time for the adults to take over. All the name calling and in-your-face protesting will not change one fact of the situation that state is facing. If this is an example of how teachers in WI teach their children to deal with life, then they all need to be fired anyway. Start over. It’s a win win situation. Fire them all like Reagan did. The public school system is so messed up anyway; privatize education NOW!

Agreed, we must remain on the side of law and good order and NEVER stoop to their tactics and be ready (with signs and bright arrow shaped placards) to point out those that try to bring discredit to the TEA Party Movement.

Everyone that protested with a days pay should be docked or fired outright.

ALL government unions should be immediately dissolved permanently. “Public servants” who take taxpayer money (and a lot of it at that) should not have the benefit of unions. This is like having elected officials form a union and go on strike, taking public pay and benefits, until they have their jobs declared permanent.

Unions served their purpose once, but no longer. They’re abusive organizations that not only strangle the free market but steal from the public AND their own membership.

Private sector unions are okay, but have also outlived their usefulness when there are laws and free market solutions to all the grievances workers may have. The time has come to eject the socialists, progressives, and utopian fools from dictating the demise of this country. GET RID OF THEM ALL, but start with government unions.

the GREEN “doo-gooder” PIGS always leave a mess… just like in COMMUNIST CHINA… CUZ they know someone will come up behind them to clean up their filthy mess… VERY COMMON FOR THESE PITIFUL SO CALLED “HUMAN BEINGS” WHO CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT… what a bunch of slobs.

It might be good to point out that Capitol Police do not allow signs with sticks or handles to enter the Capitol builing, and that the TAA is arranging for volunteers to help collect trash both inside and out. But I agree – that taken out of context – this makes the Madison protesters look less than tidy.

As one of the thousands in Madison today, and for the past several days, I can tell you that everything was cleaned up at the end of each day by people participating in the protest. In addition to being completely peaceful, it was kept VERY clean. We had volunteers completing that task.

I am a teacher and I, along with my colleagues, contacted our administrators and had pay docked for the two days we were at the capitol. Many of our students chose to join us because they understand that the opportunity to earn a decent wage is slipping through our fingers.

Readers might want to do their own research to see how middle class wages have declined and the wealth of a small sector of the country has increased dramatically over the last thirty years.

I worked hard to earn a masters degree and become a teacher. I arrive at work around 7:15 and leave after 5:00. I rarely have time to eat lunch. My backpack is full of grading when I leave and I put in one to two hours at night and anywhere from six to twelve hours on the weekend. Currently I have about 30 students in each class. One of the courses I teach qualifies students for college credit, saving them and their families on college costs. Because the class is offered in the first semester and the exam for college credit is in May, I offer review sessions after school and on weekends. That’s another six hours a week for for five weeks.

On a regular basis I deal with students who are verbally abusive, high, hyperactive, or suffering from some learning disability which requires me to make modified lessons for them. Other students come to school suffering from eating disorders, depression, abusive parents, alcoholic parents, the illness or death of a parent or sibling . . . But I am apparently lazy and greedy, like the firefighters, cops and nurses who were with me today.

I home-schooled (quite successfully). Maybe the government should have paid me or given me a tax break or some bennies for teaching my own child. Teachers have become glorified babysitters. I don’t know why anyone would want to get in the teaching profession in public schools except for the bennies and that’s about it.

You post under your real name, I will do you a solid and show you the respect you deserve by posting under mine.

So, if I understand you correctly, you work hard (for 9 maybe 9.5 months out of 12), have to deal with some unsavory elements, both interpersonal and systemic, in your career, and for that….the private sector taxpayer OWES you a living, huh? A living that far outstrips the national average? We owe you retirement? Did I miss anything there? What subtlety or nuance did I bulldoze right over? Please tell me, I am breathless in anticipation.

And please, do not, under any circumstance, include your chosen career path in the same breath with those of policemen/women and/or firefighters. Teaching kids, at any level, anywhere, tacitly does not include laying your life on the line everyday as part of the job’s description.

Actually, your graphs couldn’t have put a finer point on why we are all so fed up. It’s tantamount to admitting to everyone here who are so ragingly pissed that we are right.

Let me translate your post: “I work hard, therefore you all owe me.”

Next time, submit your post to me first. Probably save you some time and trouble.

I am a libertarian and an opponent of teacher’s unions, as you can see from my previous comments. But things aren’t so simple as you make them sound. Ideally, a fair salary is set by the free market; since the government has taken an effective monopoly on K-12 education, the question of fair pay cannot be settled that way. Much as I wish it didn’t, Diane’s explanation of how hard she works and how dedicated she is to her students really does have a place in the debate. We The People must decide how much a teacher should make, not according to any economic principle, but according to how much we collectively value their work; as with cops, soldiers and regulators, We The People do indeed owe her a living. Such is always the case when the government distorts the free market so extensively.

I would also point you to Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy, quoted in the comments above, and suggest that Diane may be one of those who work for the goal of the organization, not the organization itself. From her post, it sounds that way to me.

Of course the solution to all this is simply school vouchers. The real crime of the unions is not their insistence on high pay (although I’ll grant they’ve gone hog wild with benefits), but their indefensible opposition to reform and parental choice.

I was homeschooled. As you can imagine, college came as something of a shock. Maybe not the sort of shock we’re sometimes led to imagine, though; the shock wasn’t social contact, or gay people, or other political views, all of which were already familiar. The shock was in English 101, when half of the class couldn’t write coherently! These were intelligent people. Some found academic success, after working hard to right the ship. Some found academic success, I suspect, without ever righting it. But their public schools had failed them profoundly. Of course others went to great public schools, and were qualified to teach their freshman classes.

My question for you is simply this: why not take all the money we should spend on public schools, and simply distribute it to parents for the purpose of educating their kids? People who already have great schools would probably keep them. People whose children are tragically stuck in awful public schools would have the freedom, finally, to do something about their lot. I cannot see who has anything to lose from this arrangement, except for incompetent educators and union officials. I realize this may sound like simplistic optimism–but how would vouchers hurt students? How would they hurt good teachers, who would be in demand? I don’t understand the unions’ opposition to school vouchers except as a way of protecting the power of union officials. And protecting union officials is not a goal of public education.

You write, “My question for you is simply this: why not take all the money we should spend on public schools, and simply distribute it to parents for the purpose of educating their kids?”and yet
you claim to be a Libertarian.

What legitimate Libertarian would suggest taking my money (no children) and redistributing it to those with children?! Obama would LOVE you!

A practical one. It is inarguable that public money will be subsidizing education for the foreseeable future. A flexible, responsive system for distributing that money would be a dramatic improvement, even if it isn’t a perfect-world solution. If we’re going to spend other people’s money, we should at least get a return on investment.

Also, a somewhat conflicted one. I’ll admit to doubting that children are purely the responsibility of their parents. It takes a well-educated and ethical populace to exercise liberty without destroying it. Doesn’t mean I suddenly like the drug war, or expansive readings of the Commerce Clause.

So who do I believe? You or the reams of photographic, documentary and video evidence of garbage left behind, hateful and violent rhetoric and other anti social and illegal behaviour (like fraudulent doctor’s notes?)

Oddly, I’m supposed to believe the TEA Party movement indulges in all these things despite an overwhelming absence of evidence, but you and your kind don’t, all evidence to the contrary.

So; With all your education, you still need a UNION to get you the pay and benefits you think you deserve?
Sounds to me like you have a legitimate claim against whomever educated you for not fulfilling their obligation to ‘educate’ you.
Either that, or you have a learning disability.
Did you know that fire is hot?

How does any form of government – Federal, State, towns etc.- become entitled to a UNION? Does the name The Union of The Socialist Republic (USSR) come to mind? Any government is already a union. Do you remember when President Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers because they endangered the lives of many people. If it is illegal for fireman, air traffic controllers, police etc. to go on strike then how can you have a union when THEIR ONLY POWER is the STRIKE?
WAKE-UP-AMERICA

We read here how hard teachers work and are therefore owed payment. For a relatively short working day and working year. Paid more generously for their time at work than persons of equivalent qualifications in the private sector, on whose taxes teachers demand their remuneration. Evaluated on comparison, it seems their model is professional politicians in voting themselves what they can get away with. If that’s the way the world works they would be fools not to make the best of that world.

BUT what about the most important element of teaching? THE COMPETENCE at the job as evidenced by success in the product, an educated population of young? Statistics in this respect are shameful. Public education in the USA within this past half century since the progressives insinuated into pivotal position in all civic institutions in America is one of ABJECT FAILURE. Not only among the various states but World wide. Many, most who have been publicly “educated” in the USA cannot read their own language, do simple maths, have no concept or interest in the story of their nation or its place in the world, respect for the rights of others, civility to others in public, or the requirement to become adult

On that scale the evidence is in Nationwide. Teachers, with rare exceptions of the dedicated to educating their charges, have become bureaucrats. Harbinger ?? of the future of the inevitable. When those who choose service occupations leave behind honourable standards of service and ethical treatment of their charges. With standards of competence continuously tested.
With expectations they do the job they accepted. AND when they do not they compensate those they injured by their incompetence. THEY DO NOT RECEIVE further unaccountable reward and payment to keep the peace. OR do they?

So; Tell me. Why are there no unions for priests, or any other clergy?
Should the Congress of the United States be unionized?
And the Army, Navy and Marines should definitely be able to strike if they don’t like the way they are being treated.
(Sorry if I seem so crass. You sound like an honorable person. I’d guess religious. But, you’ve been taken for a sucker by these unions.)

Government employees should never be allowed to strike because the people who pay them, the taxpayers, have no ability to either negotiate or refuse to pay them, if the taxpayer isn’t satisfied with the job they’re doing.

We HAVE to pay their salaries no matter how badly they perform, because the government won’t take no answer when it comes to taking our money (via taxation) to pay their salaries.

If we refuse to pay our taxes, they’ll lock us up in a cage; if we resist being locked up in a cage, they’ll shoot us down. That’s the deal from the taxpayer side. You either pay the salaries of the people in the government, or the government will kill you if that’s what it takes to get your money. We can’t negotiate, do a deal or anything else. It’s either pay up or die.

That’s the reality, and that’s why people who work for the government should NEVER be allowed to strike. If they do, they should immediately be fired.

They should have the same recourse we have if we don’t like the salaries they’re being paid, which are: elect new officials who will pay what we or they think is right, or peacefully assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

As taxpayers, we are NEVER allowed to go out on strike and refuse to pay our taxes, and the salaries of government employees, and it ought to be the same for the government people we employ. If it isn’t that way, it puts us in a position we’re were constantly getting screwed because they have all kinds of power that we, as taxpayers, can never employ.

I’m a union man myself (Teamsters), and I say strikes should only be employed when all sides have the ability to refuse to take part in whatever deal is being contemplated. Allowing government employees to strike, when taxpayers never can is naked tyranny, and nothing less than naked tyranny.

If government employees don’t like the deal they’re being offered, then let them quit and seek employment where the money that pays their salaries isn’t being collected at the point of a gun.

Where were all these self-righteous greedy creep teachers when their union bosses were raiding the union dues accounts to pad the pockets of greedy, unscrupulous politicians? What I see are a bunch of whiny, crybabies. If the Union bosses had spent all of that union money on their membership instead of padding the pockets of the Prez and his minions. the governor wouldn’t have to make them ante up for a tiny fraction of their income on their health care or their retirement fund. I’d like to see the accounting of how many hundreds of millions (or even billions) of dollars that union bosses contributed to the Democratic Party and the President over the past couple of election cycles.

It’s time union members start paying their FAIR SHARE. Isn’t that the chant we hear from the left all the time??? The entitlement mentality MUST stop. The bullying by the union members MUST stop.

Unions should contribute part or all of member’s dues towards their pension and health care instead of using it for political donations, lavish buildings, cars, trips and making themselves millionaires.

Maybe the Unions should provide and pay for ALL their benefits instead of the hard working taxpayers of WI. Ever wonder what type of benefits package they’d get then?

Teachers work 40 wks out of the year. They should get 40 weeks of pay or start working 52 weeks a year like the private sector.

Teachers are paid $80,000 plus benes for 8-months on the job, and then we find that half of the students in their schools, the future voters on whom our democracy, our prosperity, and the quality of our lives depends, are functionally illiterate. This is intolerable. Incompetent “educators” simply must be identified and fired. What the teachers’ unions have done to this country, by fostering and protecting such utter cultural rot, is beyond the wildest dreams of America’s most deadly enemies.